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Getting to Know: Good360 Australia

With more than 56,000 charities in Australia, there are thousands of fantastic stories about the impact charities have on their local community.

We recently spoke with registered charity Good360 Australia Ltd about their charity, the importance of volunteers in their organisation and how they manage corporate partnerships.

What does your charity do?

Good360 is a matchmaker, helping repurpose items of value by directing them to the Australians who need them most. We bring together the people working to lift up Australian communities, and the spare goods of businesses. We connect surplus with need. Our platform for product gifting allows companies to share what they no longer need, or have too much of. Whether it’s toys to family violence shelters, dinnerware sets to aged care facilities or notebooks for disadvantaged schools – if Australians have the need, our business partners have the goods.

What is the ultimate goal for your charity – what do you want to achieve?

One person’s extra is another person’s essential. That’s why our goal is for nothing new and useful to lie unused or worst still go to landfill. We want to deliver $1 billion of brand new goods to Australians in need by 2025. Since our launch in 2015 we have received over $68 Million of goods from over 100 businesses and distributed them to our network of over 1,000 charities Australia wide. Our business partners include well-known retailers and brands, including BIG W, LEGO, L’Oréal Australia, WINC (formerly Staples), and Moose Toys who are donating their brand new surplus goods to us to connect to people in need. We connect surplus with need and simultaneously contribute to environmental sustainability.

What is the biggest challenge faced by your charity?

Good360 has the same challenge that every Australian NFP has – funding! We are very fortunate to receive some funding from generous philanthropists and corporate partners, however this is not enough to enable us to scale appropriately to solve the volume of surplus goods sitting idle or going to landfill when they could be connected to the 3 million Australians living below the poverty line. The size of the problem of surplus brand new goods has not been adequately quantified at this stage to provide the true magnitude of the problem and hence we receive no support from Government. If Good360 receives additional funding we would be able to provide free membership (currently annual membership is $250 +GST) and reduce the barrier of paying the Shipping & Handling fee, which currently covers the cost of getting the goods direct to the door of our members Australia-wide.

How important is the support of donors and volunteers to your charity?

The success of Good360 is dependent on the support of our product and financial donors. They contribute to all aspects of our operation. Similarly, we couldn’t operate without our incredible volunteer workforce. Skilled volunteers contribute to all operational areas at our head office and most have moved onto paid employment after a period of volunteering with us; some have been hired by Good360 itself. We run a large Work-for-the-Dole program at our warehouse in Western Sydney. The work-for-the dole team benefit from meaningful work experience, gain confidence and learn specific warehousing work skills. Wherever possible we assist our participants to transition into paid work, providing training and references. Good360 itself has hired 4 of our work-for-the-dole participants since the program's inception. We also welcome corporate volunteering groups into our warehouse on a weekly basis, who assist us in sorting, configuring, labelling, counting and packing our donated goods.

From your experience, do you have any advice for charities on how to manage corporate partnerships effectively?

Corporate partnerships are becoming more integral to the success of charities. There are three main factors to consider as you enter into a potential partnership:

Are you aligned? Does the business you’re looking to partner with share your values and have a similar target market?

Will both parties gain value from the partnership? The partnership needs to be a win-win, with solutions for both parties. Identifying a problem and working with a corporate partner to solve it, not only unlocks revenue but can also drive employee and consumer engagement.

Are you ready? Corporates can move quickly and they expect you to have the people and systems in place to keep up!

Like any relationship, clear communication at every stage is critical for long-term success.

Find out more about Good360 on their website, or via their social media channels: